U.S. 参议员爱德华·J. 马基 '68, JD'72 is pictured at a 2015 电子游戏软件 event. (李Pellegrini)
The Trump-Biden battle has garnered most of the attention in the 2020 election campaign, but one of the year’s more notable political contests involved 电子游戏软件 1968 alumnus 参议员爱德华·J. 马基.
马基 won a hard-fought September 1 Democratic primary against U.S. 代表. 约瑟夫·P. 肯尼迪三世, clearing the way for him to defend his Senate seat against 代表ublican challenger Kevin O’Connor in November. 马尔登人, 他还在不列颠哥伦比亚省法学院获得了法学博士学位, 他在美国服役37年.S. House of 代表resentatives before winning a special election in 2013 to the Senate. 同年，肯尼迪，罗伯特·F·肯尼迪的孙子. Kennedy, become the representative for the Massachusetts Fourth Congressional District.
大卫·霍普金斯
Local and national political analysts generally portrayed the 马基-Kennedy primary as a clash of different generations of progressive Democrats, but also as a test of whether the Kennedy family legacy remained relevant in 21st-century American politics, 尤其是在它开始的州. There was doubt that 马基—sometimes cast as a wonk whose congressional career was associated with work on arms control and telecommunications—could appeal to younger voters, 特别是在与气候变化有关的问题上, because they tended to view him as more of a centrist Democrat.
而不是, 马基 was able to win supporters from the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party, 尤其是你.S. 代表. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, through his backing of the Green New Deal. Kennedy—who had a sizable lead in polls early on in the race—could not mount an effective campaign, 特别是在大流行期间.
电子游戏软件 faculty experts recently offered their perspectives on 马基’s victory. Associate Professor of Political Science 大卫·霍普金斯 called it “one of the most successful political reinventions of the year.
凯Schlozman
“马基 hasn’t always been known as a committed progressive during his 44 years in Congress—and he wasn’t known very well at all in some corners of the state when the race began,他说. “But by championing the Green New Deal and winning the vocal support of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, he gave liberals and younger Democrats a reason to choose him over Joe Kennedy. It’s a victory for progressives, but it’s a bigger victory for savvy politics. He’ll be heavily favored to win the general election by a large margin.”
Joseph Moakley政治学教授Kay L. Schlozman said early predictions of a 马基 defeat seemed reasonable, given his opponent’s family history—with the exception of 2011-2013, 从1947年起，国会就一直有一个姓肯尼迪的人. But the actual outcome was completely consistent with another pattern in American politics, 她说:“现有企业有优势.
“自1990年以来, 在各州的数百次参议院选举中, an incumbent senator has lost to a challenger in a party primary only eight times. 从这个角度来看，马基输定了. There is much to be said about the sources of the two candidates’ support and what they mean for the future of conflicts within the often-fractious Democratic Party, but in this limited sense the victory of Ed 马基 over Joe Kennedy has ample precedent.”
马克·兰迪
政治学教授马克·兰迪, 为一个, 认为肯尼迪的政治遗产在竞选中被夸大了, pointing to the “humiliating loss” that Ted Kennedy suffered in the 1980 presidential campaign.
“He could not beat a severely weakened and unpopular president to gain the Democratic nomination. And he lost for the same reason that young Joe lost: Neither could give the voters a principled reason for ousting their own party’s incumbent. In the famous Roger Mudd interview, Ted could give no solid reason as to why he was running. 乔在竞选期间也不能. 即使在1980年, being a Kennedy was not enough and so it is unsurprising that likeability, 在最近的案例中, 40年后，年轻是不够的.”
Retired Professor of History 帕特里克钱财 thinks pundits who discounted 马基’s progressive credentials got it wrong. Far from undergoing a progressive makeover on environmental issues, 他解释说, 马基 was “ahead of the curve” as an early supporter of Al Gore’s far-reaching proposal for a “BTU tax” to discourage the use of fossil fuels, and a co-sponsor for equally far-reaching cap-and-trade legislation in 2009 to curb greenhouse emissions.
帕特里克钱财
马基 also showed himself to be prescient on regulatory matters, Maney said. 在克林顿执政期间, 马基 teamed up with Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone to battle repeal of the Depression-era Glass Steagall Act, arguing that deregulation of the financial industry threatened to make banks “too big to fail.” Such warnings seemed prophetic when the Recession of 2008 arrived, Maney said.
“So, instead of the story of the 2020 primary being a case of Edward 马基 catching up with progressives,他说, “这是进步人士赶上他的一个例子.”
但是不要把39岁的肯尼迪一笔勾销, 他“毫无疑问会再次收到他的消息”——或者, 就此而言, 肯尼迪在美国政治中的名字, 马尼警告说:约翰. Kennedy is consistently ranked in the top tier of American presidents, and is still the subject of many books and articles—the first volume of a two-part JFK biography was recently released to great acclaim—while a much-anticipated study on Robert F. 肯尼迪和民权运动正在进行中.
肯尼迪家族的人是否担任公职, the Kennedy ‘mystique’ remains firmly rooted in the public’s imagination,曼尼说。.
Phil Gloudemans and Sean Smith | University Communications | September 2020